Ashley investigates how repetitive transposable elements (TEs) can be therapeutically harnessed to boost cancer vaccination as part of the Bhardwaj and Vabret Labs. TEs have recently gained recognition as part of a ‘viral mimicry’ response to epigenetic therapy in cancer – a phenomenon where innate immune sensing of TEs leads to a type I interferon response. Additionally, recent publications have shown that TEs can form tumor antigens that activate T cells in patients. Ashley has developed a novel screening platform to identify drugs that activate a TE-mediated viral mimicry response and is using the drugs identified through this screening to boost mRNA cancer vaccine efficacy of both traditional (tumor associated antigens and neoantigens) and TE antigen-targeting cancer vaccines. Ashley‘s work currently focuses on mouse models of melanoma but the ultimate goal is to combine the TE viral mimicry response with cancer vaccination across different tumor types as a novel immunotherapy approach
